Topic #207 Your characters have been placed in Witness Protection. What three truths about themselves do they want to keep?

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

Most of my characters have something to hide, just like your average person. The hardest part about forming an answer to this week’s question is choosing who to speak about it. I don’t want to choose the obvious character. I also don’t want to choose one of my commonly written of characters. Lastly, I don’t want to spoil any of the books for those who have yet to read them.

Consider this your warning that there are spoilers ahead…

Let’s step over to the world of Trailokya. From our comfortable spaces, we pass into Zion and the Cloisters where the powers reside. The sprawling white compounds with their ornate ivory screens hide many secrets. The powers are a private race of duta. Even the armor the guardians among them wear is veiling.

One power in particular would like to be more private than most. Upon his return from Earth, Oraiel was rewarded with full reinstatement to his rank and duties. This former moon guardian had become recidia for many centuries after The Conflict. The facts surrounding his fall and subsequent stay among humans is a confidential matter on record with high security alders.

Oraiel would probably want it known who his brother is, in order to protect anyone serving with him, or in his sphere. The things he would not want getting out are not necessarily his secrets, but maneuvers he has been closely involved in. One secret above all else is the nature of Captain Maiel’s ketu. The second is the identity of his assign at the end of the 20th Century, beginning of the 21st century. The next would be what he knows of the Illuminati, UWOS, and Magnus Castle.

It was fitting that Oraiel disguised himself as a man of the cloth while bidding his penance. He is a reflective individual, one who does not waste words, and is likely not to speak at all. When he does speak, he is careful and persuasive. Oraiel is wise. His clear sight is from the perspective of that which is written, and thus he is able to discern with great accuracy the outcomes of the future. This, too, may be something he’d like to keep under wraps. This ability would be of great worth to those in power in Samsara. However, Oraiel would not wish to become the tool of any soul. It would mean betraying the dharma of others, which is a grievous, cancerous act to commit.

It would be quite a feat for any law enforcement to keep Oraiel in witness protection, due the nature of what he is and thus the secrets he keeps.

Let’s hop on over to find out what secrets the other characters are keeping in the books of my fellow authors. Click on the links below to continue the hop, and thank you for stopping in to read.

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

Oh! This makes me super excited. With the arrival of Disney+, I’ve been reminded of the only adaptation of my favorite childhood book that was successfully made. And, it was a short film, too! The recent feature, I haven’t watched, because what I did see about it left me sour.

So what is this favorite childhood book, you ask? It is Munro Leaf‘s Ferdinand the Bull. The book was illustrated by the accomplished Robert Lawson. Disney retained the cover art and illustration style of the book when rendering their short film based on the work. The glorious line art of the book was dressed with brilliant color and a delightful humor.

If you’re not familiar with the book, you can find it at the link above. You can also look for the video on Disney+ or a copy on YouTube. I highly recommend it. But, please keep in mind that it was created at a time when racist tropes about cultures and ethnicities were acceptable. The message I prized as a child was wrapped in Ferdinand.

Ferdinand is a passive soul, more desiring of peace. His nature is symbolized by the flowers he loves. This gentle soul is swept into human violence one day, when a bee he inadvertently sits upon stings him. Do you remember being stung? It hurts, and you probably shouted. Well, Ferdinand panics and throws himself about the pasture, gaining the attention of men looking for a bull to bring to the rings in Madrid.

The message is one of pacifism. Peace will trump violence, and it is in peace that we will find out greatest happiness.

This message and the care and kindness toward animals is what drew me to this story. I cared very much that Ferdinand survive the ring. I felt terrible that he was torn from his home to become the entertainment for human bloodlust. All he ever wanted was to sit beneath his cork tree and sniff the flowers.

Check out the favorite childhood book of each author in this hop by clicking on their links below.

Topic #205 Do your characters celebrate New Years’ and if so, how? If not, why not?

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

Pixabay Stock

Theoretically, most of my known characters do celebrate the new year, in one capacity or another. “In 45 B.C., New Year’s Day is celebrated on January 1 for the first time in history as the Julian calendar takes effect.” (History.com) My books take place in the much more modern era: United States Civil War, World War II, and c. Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Yes, it’s true that The Trailokya Trilogy is not historical fiction, but paranormal-dark fantasy. It still has basis in a universe that mirrors our existing one but for the elements that are clearly not of this world. However, those celebrations may not take place directly on the page, like something out of Gatsby.

A New Year’s celebration takes place in Blue Honor, but the scene is marked by the hardships of war. There are no flamboyant parties. There is parading and posturing for the sake of a weary President. No one involved seems to take much joy in the proceedings. With all the Federal soldier faces, the dissolution of the states and knowledge of untold human suffering, there is not much to celebrate. We must also understand that this book is from the perspective of Joseph or Emily, and their interests focus on the absence of one another, and the possibility of its permanence.

In Burning Down, the New Year festivities have been and gone. The grime of the city remains despite the fireworks and joy expended just days prior to the moment in which Holly Greer meets a life changing friend. The thing is, much like the new year, the life changes take their sweet time. Nothing is immediate, although it is indeed fortunate. Those things that are written about her life are unchangeable. They must come to pass. They’re part of the fracture to come. I think we can relate to that. So many hopes are pinned on the New Year, and it annually disappoints. Despite some good that may come, overall we don’t get the treasure chest we invision. We simply aren’t in control of much of our lives and able to steer ourselves unerringly toward our intended goals. If everyone has free will, then no one does. We are at the mercy of a cause and effect that has been going for eons. It shapes us. It limits our choices. It diminishes freedom interminably.

When I said I write dark stories, I really mean it. I write historical fiction and paranormal epics that delve into the frustrations of humanity, and its realities. There is no choice to be made by any of us that is not shaped by the choices of others that were shaped by others, then shaped by others, and still shaped by others more. It’s a fact. My freedom exists within the confines of choices selected for me by others, possibly by those long since passed away, too. It is dependent upon my perspective, which is also not static. There are so many variables I find the idea of free will quite impossible, and quite laughable.

Peggy Choucair from Pixabay

So, when my characters come to the New Year, with its promise of a fresh start, it ends up being more of a turn of the page. That’s something I personally feel about the holiday. I’m so glad many find joy on that day, and have a great time at parties and other events. They should. They must! Their experiences are different from mine, and difference is the richness of the tapestry of human existence. But, although I recognize this, many do not recognize the varied experience of our fellow species, so I write about it, to make sure it’s marked down. I paint it with some grime to make it realistic. Even though there are those who need the party to turn the page, there are others who suffer through those moments. The juxtaposition of good and evil rears its head.

Reality is that New Year’s Day is just another day, and the universe takes no more notice of this particular time than it does any other. Good and bad happen, but the universe doesn’t care either way. Only we individuals care from our respective seats, and we care in a million different ways. My characters are either too focused on the fear of loss or the fear of continued mundanity to wallow in the extravagance others find relief in. Their eyes are turned toward a higher purpose and the draw of what is truly valuable. To them, marking the coming and going of years is trivial.

You ever pass through a pair of tree trunks that sit about a door-width apart, as if they’re some sort of magical portal? I used to do this as a kid. Not a thing changed, that I noticed (but maybe I should write a story about how someone does this but doesn’t realize it until much later they have passed into another reality). That’s what the New Year is like. Nothing changes that you can take immediate note of, and looking back years aren’t neat packages of time stamped out. Things start in one year and end in others. Honestly, the whole thing is more like a fiscal marker to me than anything stellar. I mean, where is the start of our orbit around the sun anyway? Who determined it was that position?

My philosophies are not festive, I know. But, would you want me to be glittery? I don’t think the books I write would be interesting or impactful anymore if I did lose my realism and shade.

Please continue the hop by clicking on one of the links below. The perspectives of the other authors are often different and compelling…

Topic #204 How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

This question is excellent. Answering it, I can help a lot of developing authors help themselves. Publishing is no easy task. Every author has their own journey; their own process for dealing with the events of writing and publishing. We are prepared to only hear advice when it serves us in the moment. If we’re not ready to receive information, then it won’t make a difference, either rejected or misunderstood, or both.

The year was 2007, two years prior to the publication of Blue Honor. I worked at The University at Albany as the English Graduate Secretary, a promotion I had taken from being clerical staff at the University’s purchasing office. I had been writing, officially, since 1997, the year I had graduated with my Bachelor’s. In that year, I spoke with a student who had published her work, and she told me why and how she did it. Our stories were sort of similar, just like any other authors. She was so proud. I really wanted to know how that felt. This student told me, you need to publish that book, to get it out from under you, because it’s stopping you from writing other things. Until you do that, you’re going to suffer.

The student was so right. I should call her the teacher. The teacher who dropped into my life just long enough to reroute my ship, and light the fire again. A messenger (who in the shadow of Trailokya may be so much more).

Let’s talk about Blue’s history and how that novel came into being…

Blue had manifested in the form of a novella, written as a final project/independent study for my Bachelor’s degree. The project had gained the attention of an agent by January of 1998. I spent a couple years under her tutelage, coming close to publishing with Penguin Books in that time. Penguin wanted her to keep an eye on me. They said: she’s the real deal. Prolific. I love this story. Please, keep an eye on her. I have too much on my plate right now, however, to take on this work. I wish you had gotten to me sooner. But, the agent drifted out of my life, no longer responding to my messages. Prior to her disappearance, she got me two paid gigs writing travel articles. Well, she said they were paid. She wrote me a check out of her own pocket to make good on it when I pressed her on that matter. She also included a query letter about Blue in her book about pitching agents.

Pushing her to pay on the articles may have been the beginning of the end. I wasn’t going to just sit and let things go. First of all, I needed money. Second, I questioned her honesty. She should have dealt me a better hand with Penguin, too. Why not ask them if they were interested after we went to an outside editor to clear up the pimples and comeback? But, she didn’t. There was zero push on that unlocked door to publishing at Penguin. The agent’s continued failure to place my manuscript bothered me, especially after that editor’s feedback. I contacted other agents, because things were starting to feel shifty. Maybe they contacted her about my reaching out to them, even though I did not mention her (and it is common practice). Either way, she left me without representation and regaining a partner in the publishing game was next to impossible. Blue simply was not ready for publication, and I didn’t have sufficient feedback to fix it. I spun my wheels.

At that point, I grew increasingly despondent about writing. It ceased to be a joy, always with the dark specter of failing to publish hanging over my head. I sought feedback to help improve, but obtaining an honest critique was hard to pin down. Either the person was too close to me and didn’t want to hurt my feelings, or they blew me off. There were also those who saw nothing wrong with my skills at this time. None of this helped, and finding those who could help was seemingly just as impossible as finding an agent.

I tried a websites that promised peer help, like Lulu and Trigger Street (the script pipeline started by Kevin Spacey started in the aughts—is that even a thing anymore since he was outed a predator?). I tried NaNoWriMo. None of it brought me closer to those who could or wanted to help. Everyone was far more concerned with their own projects, and they did not want to inadvertently lift someone up past themselves. The ideology of competition was strong on these sites, but for the cliques that seemed to develop. Getting into any group was just as impossible as finding an agent. If you didn’t get into the closed groups, you weren’t going to get anywhere. No one was open to meeting anyone or open to helping others.

Every place I went, I found myself shut out. The idea I was a hack and could not become skilled took root. Depression took root, too. Contacts that said they wanted to help would fade out just as quick as they faded in. What is the point of telling someone you want to help them, only to turn around and not do a damn thing? That lie is the worst, especially for the hopeful. It’s soul crushing. I cannot say why people do this, except maybe to blow themselves up as more than they are, then they bail to save face.

The internet had plenty of articles on the topic, but almost none of them were worth reading. There is one, however, that still sticks out in my mind. The piece was by a man who formerly worked in the publishing industry. I wish I could remember his name, to share this with you. I can barely remember the website with it’s white and orange page, or his smiling face. Was he a ginger? I don’t even know at this point. What matters is the advice he gave: to publish, you need to have your manuscript edited by a good editor. This is before you even go to an agent, most especially well-before reaching out to a publishing house. Your copy has to be clean.

That was the main key I was missing. I thought publishing houses paid their editors to do this work once they found an interesting manuscript. F— my confusion about the purpose of their positions. I’d love to have that job, though. Imagine that you are paid a cool $100k+ a year to barely proof read awesome books, that are already vetted by agents, and then oversee them into print with covers you pick. But, nevermind that pile of you-know-what. That article’s direct and solid advice is what I want to focus on. Thank the fates for this guy!

Having learned that I needed to pay an editor out of my own pocket, I also learned that the big publishing houses are wholly unnecessary. And, technology has progressed to the point that they are irrelevant. Seriously, why would you let them take over 90% of the profit when they’re not giving you anything in exchange to earn that percentage? Thus, agents, too, are extraneous. They’ll cost you 10-15%, sometimes more. An author is often left with 5% of profits from traditional publishing. Indie publishing sees at least 30% in the hands of the author, and you have to do all the same things you would with a traditional publisher. It just does not make good business sense. Having pocketed the advice, I moved forward with my book and the search for an editor worth their salt. I went through a few who were merely glorified proofreaders. It’s what I could afford, and who I could reach.

While I continued the search for an editor, the years passed and I eventually found myself a graduate school secretary. I was still mighty depressed, but I was working on my recovery. This part was still hard, especially without a peer group. I thought I had found one on deviantArt, and for a while it really was a great place to be. I met amazing people, some I still talk with today. I’m thankful for their friendship. They helped me so much. I hope my support of them was helpful to their lives (I know I helped a few of them to find the loves of their lives, and that makes these memories very special, even if we no longer talk today). Photography and friendship rebuilt my foundations.

This is not to say there were not those sniping parasites that always hang out, drawing blood from those of which they come into contact. Sociopathic Narcissist are unavoidable; found in every group. One artist, quite a talented painter, needed to undermine others to feel good about themselves due to some unspoken self-doubts. This individual declared that I did not love my writing, because I should not care if anyone else wanted to read my stories. I should do it just for myself. You see, she did her painting just for herself and was incapable of seeing the difference between painting and writing. Let me tell you, also, that this person enjoyed free access to galleries through her family and their connections. She had no idea what a struggle for visibility meant. Van Gogh could teach her a great deal about that, if she had empathy which is doubtful in light of the way she treated others in the group. I understand from where she came, the need to reaffirm her selfish foci, and how she enjoyed causing misery in others. Her words remained with me, but not in the ways she hoped they would. She was dead wrong about how I felt about my work, and the depression I experienced was proof of it.

First of all, there is zero point to writing books if there are no readers to read them. No author needs to write down the ideas in their head just to tuck them away for themselves. The written word cannot come close to the amazing visions in a writer’s head. Writers need to get their stories out of their heads for more than the reason of telling themselves stories. Telling others stories is part and parcel of writing a book. Storytelling is the point. Telling. You can’t tell a story to an empty space or just yourself. It isn’t told if no one hears it. Storytelling is human exercise requiring teller and audience. You can paint for yourself and find satisfaction because the physical thing is the point. A written story only has a physical aspect as a means of conveyance; a record that acts as vehicle. To be complete, it requires a reader. Writing and publishing are two steps in the trinity of storytelling.

This said, I am sure there are painters who feel that painting unseen are only partially complete, as well. Remember, the words said came from a person of privilege with easy access to a gallery, not someone who had fought to earn a space from which to deliver their art to the masses. The gatekeepers were her family and friends. A person of such privilege does not understand the desire to be seen. They only know visibility.

Thus, I bother to write down my stories and put them in print. Thanks to the student turned teacher, the support through deviantArt, and that wonderful article, I turned my attention to figuring out how to publish on my own. As I mentioned before, technology has caught up. After taking a job at another university, having more money in my pocket, and support from my colleagues, I grew even further. That was when I stumbled upon a truly viable means of publishing my work myself. The cost was reasonable, and they weren’t vampires preying on artists who had been beaten by a nepotistic system. They were totally on the up. So I jumped.

Then, like kismet, a US Civil War Reenactment was scheduled in my area. I attended and took a photograph, which graced the first cover of the first edition. I have a print on my wall in my living room. Things fell into place, one after the other, until Blue was at last in print.

That wasn’t the end of the journey, however. Blue still needed a lot of work, but I could only do so much without a talented editor to whip it into shape; someone to teach me how to fix what I needed to fix. By the time I prepared my second novel, having raised enough from the sales of the first, I met the editor that I needed. She worked on OP-DEC, and then I asked her to help me with Blue. Kara Storti is an amazing writer and author. She streamlined the work at my request, culling a couple hundred pages. In this process, I was able to apply important details to Emily and thus the story. Blue now stands as it should have all along, but it took a long, winding road to get there.

These experiences in publishing my first book very much changed my process. The painter made me want it harder than ever, the article I found gave me a path to follow to get there, and the student told me how to complete the project. There is still more to learn, like how to market effectively. Once I have that under my belt, then I will find a lot more audience members for my work and rise up—seen. Read.

If you’d like to learn more about how Blue Honor came to be, click here.

Click on any of the links below to read how the other authors in this hop experienced their first publication, and find out how it changed them…

Topic #203 What are the most important resources for writers?(Magazines, books, websites, etc.)

Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! The authors included in this ongoing series wish to thank you for your reads. We appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Prepare to become a regular reader.

The single most important resource for writers is…

Other writers.

That’s right. It is that simple.

Other writers will have a menagerie of experiences to share. These will be things that you’re probably not aware of or haven’t even thought you might need to know. If not that, the answers you seek would be in their perspectives. The take on a similar problem that you’re having by another individual can be rather eye-opening. This is because, again, you might not have thought about it the way they have. We seek to bounce our ideas off colleagues because that pays off for us. In addition, we have a history of engaging in this type of activity by which we can judge how useful another’s experience will be to our situation.

You can take all the magazines, books, videos, and other how-to-guides in the world, but the truth is that they won’t matter without context, without connection, and without perspective (meaning all the between the lines nuance you get from knowing someone and/or knowing various subjects that might relate from a variant lens). This is what can be called the intertext. It’s why advice columns don’t work for everyone. It’s the thing that causes you to doubt someone’s advice, too. This is how we recognize that whatever we endeavor upon will or won’t work out: we gauge it by the other knowledge we’ve gained in our lifetimes.

It’s pretty easy to write down your writing experience in a how-to-guide, denuded of all those details that give it a complete picture. You can’t write down everything, because of the limit of space, and because our memories are flawed. However, most guides are stripped to the basic bigger-steps that an artist may have taken—because you have no idea if they’re retelling the actual path or making something up because it sounds better. And, that is another reason that personal connections with other writers matter so much. You’ll know if they’re holding back or if they’re blowing things up. You’ll know if they are changing the story. Well, in most cases. We hope that our colleagues are honest with us.

Honesty, however, is dependent upon trust. If another writer you’ve become close with doesn’t necessarily trust you (for one reason or another), you won’t get them to open up entirely. They’re going to hold back because they suspect whatever they do say may be used against them somehow in the future. Distrust is a natural human emotion built on history.

Look, we all come to every relationship with our history and knowledge. We have to take that into account when interacting. As I have said before in other posts, don’t be fake and don’t use people. Your fellow authors are colleagues and deserve respect. Be fair and don’t expect too much from them. It is not their job to raise you up and they won’t get paid to do that either, so an expectation of this is unreasonable. If they do something for you, it’s an altruistic act. This means that it may or may not be repeated in the future. The most important thing is to be a friend without the expectation from the friendship of getting something with which to merely enhance yourself.

Beyond other authors, your most important resources will be your computer and internet, for obvious reasons of utility. Libraries, bookstores (online and off), continued learning classes, film, television, documentary, friends, family, and the world in which you live—will all be important resources. As I have said before, in order to be a prolific and healthy writer you are going to have to go out and live your life. Living and experiencing is the well from which you’ll draw your ideas and exuberance for writing. Included in that life are other authors and those important relationships you’ll forge with them.

Live. Be a friend. Write.

See the links below? Click on them to read what the other authors in the hop have to say on the topic. One or more of their perspectives could be key for you…